From: “FAMU’s problems loom over Florida Classic”:
FAMU undoubtedly needs rebranding and fresh thinking, but
few schools are as steeped in as much tradition. Rudy Hubbard coached the
Rattlers to an unbeaten football season in 1977 and the Division I-AA
championship in 1978.
I covered the program 10 years later, and Hubbard would joke
that he still couldn't win over the old guard, which lamented that he didn't
run the program up to former football coach Jake Gaither's standards.
Gaither, Bob Hayes, Althea Gibson and Willie Galimore sprang
from the golden sports era of pre-integration at FAMU. The school is rightly
proud of its heritage, but the nostalgia Hubbard battled is still a prickly
issue.
The old guard has to be approached with tact and deference. [Athletics
Director Kellen Winslow] came into FAMU swinging a sledgehammer.
"It's broken. It can't be fixed," he said of the
athletic department. "Tear it down, start over and build it the right
way."
Winslow had a hard task to begin with. Infuriating the FAMU
establishment might have made it impossible.
He has cut sports programs and fired coaches to save money, and I'm sure there's a grand strategy somewhere. It's just hard to tell since Winslow has built an insular fiefdom.
He turns down almost all interview requests and hasn't built
relationships with students and alumni. They are the people he needs for
fundraising programs, which are decades behind the times.
"Before you start fundraising, you got to start making
friends," a prominent alum told me. "He's making enemies."
Whatever impressed [FAMU President Elmira Mangum] about Winslow has been lost on the
Rattlers' fan base. The mutiny really kicked in when he fired football coach
Earl Holmes four days before the Nov. 1 Homecoming game and named Corey Fuller
interim coach.
Holmes had a 6-16 record at FAMU, and most figured he'd eventually
get fired. But he's a Rattler football legend, and fans felt he deserved better
treatment.
That became obvious when Winslow took the stage to introduce
the football team at the Homecoming convocation. Students started booing and
didn't stop until Mangum took the microphone and asked them to pipe down.
The school's Athletics Oversight Committee met soon after
and issued a vote of no confidence in Winslow. The FAMU Board of Trustees met
Monday and approved that vote by a 6-3 margin.
Read the full column here.